Perfect 10
by tal-pinay
Summary: When did Sam and Jack actually fall in love? There really wasn't an exact moment. It's actually a gradual hodgepodge of moments, leading to the big one when they've realized that that they had fallen in love – hard. Here is one of those little moments. Rated T for topic. One-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**Perfect 10**

 _When did Sam and Jack actually fall in love? There really wasn't an exact moment. It's actually a gradual hodgepodge of moments, leading to the big one when they've realized that that they had fallen in love – hard. Here is one of those little moments._

Passing the time in P3X-8933, Daniel and Jack were having their mindless banter. The topic was brought about by the peculiar caste system of the planet, where one's social standing was based on one's sexual prowess. If one rated high, he or she became a leader of the community, was given better shelter, food, and so on and so forth.

"I don't know Jack. My relationships aren't based on just that," Daniel in his exasperated tone.

"Aw c'mon! Someone must've told you how you fare in bed," Jack urged him on, while waiting for his 2IC to finish her usual gate diagnostics. The planet had a complicated set of doohickeys in which the Captain found interest.

"Doesn't it also depend on who you're doing it with? It is after all a _team_ effort," Daniel said with a snide, still refusing to give Jack a number.

"Yeah, but you must've wondered at least once in your life how you rate in that department," Jack said, persistent in proving that Daniel was also shallow but just didn't want to admit it.

"What about you Colonel, what's your rating," Sam intruded. She wasn't a stranger to all the locker room talk. Before being part of an all-male team, she had also readied herself for the worst. But seeing that these guys were harmless, she had actually taken part in some of their pissing contests.

"Oh sorry Carter, I didn't see you there.." Jack straightened up seeing his 2IC had rejoined them. They weren't expecting her to turn up so early.

"S'okay Sir, I'm one of the guys now right," she said while slumping in front of the campfire beside her CO whose attractiveness, charm, and oozing manliness she had to learn to quickly adjust to early on. Though she still had to look away when she noticed him looking at her in that way she couldn't yet describe- the effect of his gaze was something she hadn't quite mastered yet. But she knew she'd get there.

"Yeah, what about you Jack. Are you worthy to be this planet's supreme leader," Daniel didn't expect Sam to be that bold, specially with the obvious pull between the two. Sam was turning out to be the only person he knew who could easily rattle his friend. And Daniel liked it.

Jack's face turned red. He knew Daniel was enjoying the tables turning against him so quickly with the arrival of his 2IC. So he sucked it up, deciding he didn't want Daniel to win this one.

"Well, I'm a 10," he said proudly.

Daniel snorted while Jack noticed his Captain was giggling.

"What about you Captain?"

"Oh, me. I don't.. think about myself in that aspect really." It was her turn to turn beet red. She didn't expect to be asked.

"Realllly?" Jack shifted and turned his full attention on her.

"Ok, there was this guy who said I'm a 7.5," she blurted out fast for the conversation to be over. Yeah she was one of the guys, but she was still a girl, she reminded herself.

 _Physicist, Air Force, smart speed demon blonde._ Jack began to imagine things which he definitely shouldn't. No no no. But before he could shut his mouth, the words were out.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure you're a 10."

Sam's eyes almost popped out of her head.

"Did I just.. say that out loud," Jack muttered in disbelief as he saw the look on his 2IC's face.

"Oh yeah," Daniel said relishing the newfound edge he had over his friend, thanks to Sam.

Jack got up abruptly and dusted himself, "We best head home."

After 5 minutes of walking to the gate, Jack managed to catch up to Sam.

"Carter, back there. I wasn't really-" he was new to dealing with having a female in his team. And as he got to know her, it became even harder. She was all kinds of different: a kick-ass 2IC and genius scientist in a soft and caring _\- can he say this—_ hot chick package. She confused him, a lot. And for the first time in his life, Jack found himself at a loss when it came to handling a member of his team.

"Everything's fine Sir," Sam was touched to know he was worried. Truth be told, these little reassuring gestures of the Colonel were refreshing for someone like her who had gotten used to the big unapologetic male egos in Pentagon. The misogynistic military CO she assumed him to be when they first met was turning out to be a genuinely warm leader who cared about his team's feelings. _And did she mention he was sexy as hell._

"So we're good?" he threw her a grin.

"Exceptional Sir, we're a ten," Sam managed with a wicked smile before pacing ahead of him.

Watching her six, Jack had a terrible feeling his 2IC was right all along: as he was getting to know her, he was starting to like her.


	2. Chapter 2

_One of those defining moments of their ship. Her near death should be enough to knock some sense into Jack and make him do something like this…_

He should be used to it by now- death hovering over them like a fifth member of their team. He whipped them back in shape to remind them who was in charge. But like the prankster it was, death would always pull out all the stops to make its presence known in the most random way possible.

Death was at it again with Carter. In the most inconceivable way, he almost lost her to a "computer virus." It was downright silly. But that silliness quickly escalated into fatally serious in a matter of minutes. As she lay there in the infirmary, he whispered a prayer to all the gods in the universes to bring her back in exchange for a promise that he would no longer take things for granted between the two of them.

"Carter," he waltzed right in her lab. His voice had that usual lilt which she had recognized to mean that all was well. Maybe not between them necessarily. Though she couldn't hope for better things as she was still in SG1, alive and working side by side with – him. Sure there were walls between them. But it was better than nothing. It was better to feel something.

She paused and lifted her head to acknowledge him with a smile.  
"What's up Sir."

"Oh just checking if you're.. you," Jack sat on the stool across her and leaned forward on the table.

He was glad to see the red back in her cheeks and the bright blue back in her eyes knowing she was so close to death just the week before.

She tried to downplay the queasiness in her stomach as he was giving her that smug smile of his that has been stuff of her dreams, which involved wiping off said smug smile with a smoldering kiss. _Easy Samantha._

"That for me Sir?" she nodded her head towards the small box he was holding. It was to be his fifth gift since she recovered from her near-death they called it. The SGC had filled her in with way too much information on how the Colonel was- distraught, near tears, in a rage, murderous, - depending on who told the story, while she was lying in a comatose in the infirmary. She dismissed these as exaggerations of course, but his overcompensations and gifts were starting to convince her otherwise. Then again she chalked it up to the fact that the Colonel had to zat her in order to save the world.

"Consider this my last, the pinnacle, welcome-back-to-the-living gift, Carter," he placed the small brown box on the table, and gently pushed it towards her.

"Why thanks Sir," despite the scene repeating for the nth time that week, she said it with sincerity which always managed to make his heart swell.

He hunkered down closer to her, nervously and eagerly reading her face. As soon as she saw what was in the box her eyes squinted in confusion,

"A key Sir?"

He leaned further causing her to hold her breath as she caught the dancing sparkle in his brown eyes and that distinctive Colonel O'Neill scent. Locking her in his gaze he carefully said, "It's for the room where we left it."

A mist started forming in her eyes, which he couldn't do much about except to respond more intimately with words, "When you're ready."

Sam sat there powerless, knowing she was once again caught in an instant when she was wordless and smarting at the joy and pain of slowly falling in love with her Commanding Officer.

There was no need to respond to that unraveling. It should be enough for him to know she was grappling for words to say. More than enough, Jack thought as he slipped out of her lab and rejoined their world with his heart full of hope.


End file.
